Anyway, I was just thinking about something. Why do we have to register to vote? Why is it not automatic once you reach the age of majority? I know you'd still have to do paperwork if you move and stuff, but for Nation-wide elections, that doesn't really matter so much.

When I was in Boston, I used to drive to Fall River to vote, because I never got around to getting that fixed. My point is that registration is a barrier to voting, and it is a basic unalienable right of a citizen of this country, isn't it? Do you have to register to exercise any of your other rights?

Also, requesting party affiliation should be illegal. I don't see what that adds to our process at all other than to give unethical sorts the ability to conveniently lose your application.

You have to register for plenty of things. Car being the most obvious and now you can automatically register to vote when you register your car or change your address. I guess my feeling is if you can't be bothered to drop by city hall or the registry (or register by mail, or at work (we had a registration drive), etc) than you probably aren't that interested in voting and probably aren't very well informed. If that's the case my feeling is please stay home!

Well, it seems to me to be a barrier to entry that is unnesecessary. As I say, when you reach age of majority, you usually go and get a social security card, why not the vote, too? You'd be registered to vote in the district that you live in. They already check for multiple votes by checking you off a list. All they have to do is send you a letter telling you which precinct you are to vote in, where it is, and if you need an absentee ballot.

I don't think this is impossible. Sure there are logistics, but what is the issue? If it's important, and a right, then it should be done. It is irrelevant if the people use it or not. It's no excuse to be able to disallow an exercise of a crucial right because someone forgot to fill out some forms.

If I am arrested I have the right to an attorney. They hand one to me. Is this any different? Driving is a choice, not a right. I think this is legacy. Wealthy white landowners voted, no one else did. That has changed.

When we have a system that makes it possible for citizens who are attempting to register to end up not being registered there is a serious problem. I'm referring to what's been happening in the 'red' states.

They aren't allowed to use ss# (which you normally get when you're born).

Elections are run by local government (even national ones) the federal govt has no juristiction (see I have learned something from Jon Stewart. He must be a news show. Actually I'm sure I learned that in 6th grade but like everything else I learned back then I had forgotten it until I was watching a Jon Stewart tape last week). Anyhow back to the point. How is Stow (for example) town hall supposed to know you've moved in/out if you haven't told them? If you are a land owner property tax records could do it but what if you rent? A town census might work but it would have to be a real one not justa send in the flyer mailing since it would be far to easy to register multiple times otherwise.

I think registration actually comes more from the late 1800's when lots of dead people used to vote in Chicago and other places.

"It's pretty easy to be registered in two places, even if you don't own a second home like Adell Hardiman or filmmaker Michael Moore, who's registered in both New York and his native Michigan, where he has a lakefront house, according to the Smoking Gun. When you move and change registration, in most states, you're supposed to give the address or county where you were previously registered. That notification, in turn, is supposed to trigger a cancellation of your former registration. But not every state bothers to report the new registration.

"This oversight occurs in part because the Constitution gives states, not the federal government, the responsibility for running elections—making accountability trickier. The Framers didn't envision an America where people moved from state to state so frequently. Nor did they foresee one where many people owned second homes. And they certainly didn't imagine voters who forum-shop, like the Washington-based journalist I know who's voting in New Hampshire, where he spent several months covering the campaign, or the New Yorkers who have registered in Florida via Operation Snowbird, which encourages Northerners who winter in Florida to vote in that all-important battleground state. (The Florida secretary of state reluctantly deemed such registrations legit, as long as the snowbirds didn't vote twice.)"

...New Yorkers who have registered in Florida via Operation Snowbird, which encourages Northerners who winter in Florida to vote in that all-important battleground state. (The Florida secretary of state reluctantly deemed such registrations legit, as long as the snowbirds didn't vote twice.

I've become convinced that Operation Snowbird votes will probably not be counted.